TechJuice, Pakistan's premier platform for technology news, in collaboration with Dawn worked on the series Girls can code.

What if I ask you to imagine a Project Manager, a President, a CEO, who do you picture?

Over the years, our brains have somehow been wired to associate any leadership position with a man. Men are assumed to eventually take over such roles. A woman, not so much. She has to carefully carve the way for herself to be considered as capable as a man. So when I found out I would be meeting Sana Khan, Telenor’s Head of Digital Transformation, I was thrilled. It’s not every day you get to meet a woman who has made a mark for herself in a field dominated by men.

When Sana walks into the room she is as delightful as can be and immediately mitigates my nervousness. On the outside she is calm, on the inside, she is determined, a woman ready to fight the tough fight. Sana had always been a top performer at school and when the time came for university, she picked a subject no one in her family had ever been able to do before. Mathematics. Her parents had their reservations but Sana had made an unwavering resolution, one that she was successfully able to fulfil.

By the time Sana completed her Bachelor’s degree, a career in technology was gradually gaining momentum among her peers. That is when Sana opted for a Master’s degree in Computer Science (CS). Surprisingly, her parents were completely fine with her decision. Sana smiles, “They somehow consoled themselves that if I had done something as difficult as Mathematics then I’d be completely fine in CS.”

Sana recalls that the number of girls in her CS batch was really low. Rather demotivating was the fact that eventually girls started quitting the course, one after the other, as the tough curriculum started taking its toll until there were only a handful of girls left.

At the outset of her career at Telenor, she quickly became known for being the lone girl in Telenor’s IT Support.

After completing her Masters in Computer Science, Sana immediately joined Telenor and hasn’t looked back since. Sana says that she has been lucky enough to have received an encouraging environment at her workplace. At the outset of her career at Telenor, she quickly became known for being the lone girl in Telenor’s IT Support. Over the years, she has continually defied stereotypes, holding significant roles as a Manager and Assistant Manager. Fast forward ten years, today when Telenor is transforming into a digital company, Sana’s role is pivotal.

Sana’s job as the Head of Digital Transformation is not easy and she knows that. What makes her best-suited for the job is her work efficiency. She is solution-oriented and rarely succumbs to pressure. When Sana isn’t at work, she likes to read, write and cook.

As our conversation progresses, Sana admits that she is a lot more fortunate than most girls. The harsh reality is that every year tens of thousands of Pakistani students graduate with a degree in Computer Science, less than 50 per cent of which are girls. Due to our socio-cultural norms, the number of girls who choose to work is even dismal.

Gender disparity and stereotypes run deep in our society and it is impossible to change mindsets overnight. “We need to empower girls. We need to tell women and girls that they can do anything a guy can do. We must support the idea of women participating in the workforce,” says Sana.

Sana thinks that women are hesitant to pursue careers because workplaces are mostly male dominated. Even at organisations like Telenor women make up for only 18 per cent of the entire workforce, while in the technology & IT department that figure is even lower. Gender disparity in the tech industry is a pressing issue and it needs our immediate redress. Employers need to hire more women and promote existing ones to decision-making tiers. Workplaces should be more women-friendly and accommodating.

According to the Credit Suisse Research Institute, large companies having at least one woman on their Board of Directors were able to make more profits as compared to companies who did not have any woman member at all.
Sana opines, “The first, and the most important thing, is to realise that a problem exists. Only then can we reach its solution. Workplaces need to hire more women, have equal wages, childcare and paid maternity leaves. A strong support system is all that is required in order to attract and retain women employees at workplaces.”

A recent report from Paycheck shows that 99% of the tax filers in Pakistan are men while rest of the 1% comprises of women.

Sana strongly advocates the fact that women should always be taken on board for important decisions. During our conversation, the importance of retention was also highlighted. A recent report from Pay-check shows that 99% of the tax filers in Pakistan are men while rest of the 1% comprises of women. The report attributes this sharp contrast to the fact that a vast majority of women are earning below the exemption threshold. This ultimately hints at the fact that there is a considerable wage gap between men and women. Such a work ethic at most companies will only drive women away while also widening the gender gap.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2015 suggests that at the current pace it will take another 118 years to close the gender gap. However, that does discourage us from catalysing the process of achieving gender equality. The aforementioned initiatives and various other steps need to be taken in order to attract and retain women with great potential. But most importantly, we need to urge young girls to choose careers in technology. When the number of graduating girls increases we can at least hope that the gender gap will eventually start to close up.

But at the end of the day, it all comes down to how passionate a girl is. Sana feels that girls are immensely talented and it would be sad to see their talent go to waste. With deep honesty in her voice, she looks straight at me and says, “If a woman can deliver a child she can do anything!”

This article was originally published here and has been reproduced with permission.

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Comments (46) Closed

J AhsanNov 03, 2016 08:07am

KEEP UP THE good work Sana Khan
you are making us all proud!

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TruthNov 03, 2016 08:12am

Good for her!

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Syed Waqar Ali, CanadaNov 03, 2016 08:14am

The girls are occupying very good positions both in the public and private sectors. We should encourage them as is done in this very well written article. I would request dawn to encourage the writers to write more on the achievements of our young female generation.

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DaanishNov 03, 2016 08:46am

Excellent. keep up the good work.

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Adnan aliNov 03, 2016 08:48am

Thank you Dawn and Techjuice for this series.

We have to support STEM education and girls' education if we want to survive in the world.
This series helps in encouraging the brilliant minds that they too can do something which matters and creates a positive change in the world.

Offtopic : can you look at the page code and change the class so that comments can be made in small case. the large makes it look like that we are shouting.

The issue is in class property for textarea, currently set to "text-input one-whole caps" should be "text-input one-whole" (in small case off course)

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haroonNov 03, 2016 08:49am

bravo, keep it up :)

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mohsinNov 03, 2016 09:12am

good work

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IMTIAZ ALI KHANNov 03, 2016 09:24am

Sana we are proud of you my friend. god bless you and like minded people with tons of success. keep up the good work. pakistan has a lot talent, with right guidance and leadership like your genration, pakistan can become a modern developed nation.

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kashifNov 03, 2016 10:05am

great job.

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AsadNov 03, 2016 11:08am

i think article is for women not for girl because historically girl is considered below 18 years of age.

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MurtazaNov 03, 2016 11:21am

Good WOrk lady.

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Engr Altaf Ali JageeraniNov 03, 2016 11:24am

Appreciative , WELL DONE

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MuneebNov 03, 2016 11:47am

gOOD Work Sana. Great achievements no doubt. but just a point of caution, the problems of gender gaps will never be addressed by just hiring women and looking at gender ratios in MNC's. Women in the talent pool need to be as good as you which unfortunately arent too many. The problem goes much deeper. it relates to our grass roots. we have to provide them good education first everywhere in the country and encourage them. Once that is done, we will automatically see more women. iTS A SLOW PAINSTAKING PROCESS AND WON'T BE RESOLVED BY JUST HIRING WOMEN.

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y-fiNov 03, 2016 11:52am

Encouraging girls means a safe and honorable job not only high paid and good titled ... Especially free from harassment ... iran development and revolution backbone are females ...

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imtiaz ali khanNov 03, 2016 12:14pm

@Murtaza love to these beautiful souls. these girls and boys are the reason pakistan has hope for qaid's dream. love, love, love to our young generation tigers.

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AHANov 03, 2016 12:20pm

For records TCS has over 100,000 female IT engineers and have a 100% female only centre in Riyad

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Samad Chaudhry London Nov 03, 2016 12:48pm

Congratulations
Keep up the good work
God speed

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Muhammad Zubair SajidNov 03, 2016 12:51pm

Sana: Good to see daughters of nation are very energetic, hardworking and salute to those who had confident on her abilities to perform.
Good luck for future.

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AKNov 03, 2016 03:01pm

This article apparently meant to let everyone know that girls are doing a great Job, I liked it and really appreciate it.

I wish writer would have asked her to share her viewpoints how Telenor is working on Digital Transformation, what are their future plans etc (after getting 4G license), what is Digital Transformation is all about.

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Farooq JawedNov 03, 2016 03:10pm

Regardless of the widespread misogyny that 50%+ population endure in Pakistan on daily basis. It is very encouraging to see stories like this where women are shown to thrive in their chosen career. This only goes to show us that "Women can do anything they set their mind to" all they need is even playing field.

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asifNov 03, 2016 03:23pm

keep it up

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ZiaNov 03, 2016 03:38pm

Good job!

Whenever stories of succesful people appear in Pakistan media I am interested to know what kind of background they are coming from what were their parents financial positions and status in the society. This gives us better idea of how successful a society is. Is it possible for a boy or a girl from a mediocre or lower financial class to be successful in Pakistan? Sadly the answer is NO.

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Snoow vesNov 03, 2016 04:12pm

keep up the good work in high spirits

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JawaadNov 03, 2016 07:39pm

When I heard the news of Sana being a Head of Digi- transformation, first thought as a man we always jump to conclusion is that she might be a daughter of an elite with deep pockets and have reached here because of so called Parchi-system, but when you look at her Resume you will be surprised that she is Mathematician cum Computer Scientist, sadly speaking another reason which has been overseen by Writer here is not Gender equality issue, its social influences, women are usually influenced in by society, family, friends and peers to change careers or sit at homw, leave education mostly because of getting married or maternity, because they have been considered as weak joint in society as if they are only to give birth to babies and stay at home to take care of house chores, luckily after I.T boom and a lot of private tech institutes in Pakistan; girls are not behind anymore, I am a private company owner and I contact free lance websites from time to time for small website issues to be fixed at reasonable price as I.T houses charge you fortune, I was surprised earlier and you will too to see that most of our girls are on foreign Free lance plateforms working tirelessly to provide you good services ranging from article writing, (S.E.O) Search Engine Optimization to database modification and Coding for mobile app design; at cheaper cost, I would also encourage our girls to have a look down this road to make some good money, websites like Twoforum.com, fiverr, elance, freelancer and plenty more can empower our girls and bring some cashflow to economy.
I believe with proper help we can back girls by providing them free online courses and career regardless of staying at home mums or college girls. It will not only boost their moral but also speedize the gap between gender related stats in I.T industry furthermore our parents, society and peers specially husbands on other hand need to digest this fact now that women are not only for giving birth to your child they are also a strong other half of your home sweet home and if you want better social status then rather than trying to get foreign visa (there is nothing wrong with it, except that people are compelled to ask their wives to work in foreign countries too ) isn't it better to let your wives and daughters do white collar tech jobs here in own country moreover on other hand we need to strengthen our Workplace Sexual Harrasement laws which can prevent pervertual vultures to discourage feminine to work in men

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khanNov 03, 2016 07:52pm

An excellent precedent for our women . Who says there is gender inequality or women degradation in our society ? There are a bundle of opportunities for all and sundry , just one should have confidence , proper devotion and commitment of getting engaged in various jobs and social affairs . As societies are developing and people are getting educated they are also allowing their females to go for a better job . Only the impasse in our women's avenue to success is their own lack of confidence and their instinct of scrupulous shyness from male members . To achieve their goals and ambitions women will have to be bold and enthusiastic to face the various social challenges of society and job organizations . Just one should have the Guts to reach paramount ; an explicit precedent like SANA KHAN and Other such successful women are here in our society to motivate girls and women . No one has fallen from heavens and are born here in this world .

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FerozQNov 03, 2016 08:24pm

You go girl! super job!

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sikander qadirNov 03, 2016 08:45pm

An immense story of triumph, Its often said that girls has faced with disparity but the contemporary tide has transited to this concept likewise sana is big instance of it. beside story of sana's prosperous it should be accept that in current situation girls have more opportunities than boys but they are not that much industrious like boys are. additionally they have support from all available facilities but boys are not that much.

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British Pakistani Nov 04, 2016 03:31am

Coding has become outdated now.
Do something new

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Syed shahid hussain bukhariNov 04, 2016 03:47am

Sana Khan...... Your achievement is truly commendable so keep up the good work.
Congratulations for proving that hard work and honesty are indeed the best policies. You are one of the shining star of Pakistan. This is the time for Pakistan, where hard working and honest youngsters like you would be assets for this country. Well done. May this moment last forever. My prayers are always with you…Congratulations.

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A.KhanNov 04, 2016 04:49am

Not the best place for what I have to say but its to do with Telenor and my beef is with Telenor.

Telenor need to get their act together. I bought a SIM from them the other day and it does not work with any phone. Yet the Telenor franchise rep keeps insisting that there is nothing wrong with it. Only problem is that the same phones work extremely well with Ufone and other providers, so obviously there is a problem with the Telenor SIM. On top of that, the balance of Rs1000 has been consumed without the SIM even working for a full day. And the time I have to spend visiting Telenor franchises to resolve this issue is ridiculous.

C'mon Telenor, man up and just replace the frigging SIM and give me a credit for my balance. Otherwise your digital transformation will come to naught. The difference between visiting Telenor offices and Ufone was huge. My brother said it was like the difference between an ordinary shop and an Apple Store.

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HassanNov 04, 2016 06:49am

Interestingly not many girls reading this article on dawn website. (Or not enough hirls commenting)

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MuhammNov 04, 2016 07:21am

Really inspiring story, and an encouragement to other ladies to take on STEM disciplines!
Our best wishes for a successful career!

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Saad KhanNov 04, 2016 07:35am

Always feel good to see women in my country is rising and beating all the odds

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Khawar KhanNov 04, 2016 07:36am

Good article but sorry to say in every organization girls have edge over men, they get more incentives than men, out of turn promotions, salary increaments, duty off timings etc

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Khakan Nov 04, 2016 09:13am

By 2050 Western world will be more women CEOs than men. Countries where more women are in the workforce are far more advanced in every way.

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Pakistani tujhe salamNov 04, 2016 10:09am

@Muneeb well said...this problem needs to be addressed which will be huge task in our male dominated egoistic society.
We should anyhow provide a safe and progressive environment to those who are already in the job market.

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AliNov 04, 2016 10:25am

Women should be encouraged to participate in every field as they are capable as men. Unfortunately, in some tribal areas women are still deprived of getting even a basic primary education.Girls like sana Khan and their work could be the lesson for these societies.

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Furqan Hameed Nov 04, 2016 10:25am

Nice work keep it up....

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engr JawadNov 04, 2016 10:55am

Telecom job is not easy and Telenor is worst among all. If she is doing it from ten years, she is really a brave and talented woman. Well done ma'm.

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Fazal KarimNov 04, 2016 03:03pm

Students of Computer Science will like to now San's technical achievements in the field. American elections and top position of woman in in IBM and other organisations are ample proof of gender equality. No nation can progress unless there is good contribution of women in its economy and politics

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TMNov 04, 2016 03:20pm

Bravo!!!

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Mushtaque AhmedNov 04, 2016 03:52pm

Sana your are the face of modern Pakistan!
Your success story is a beacon for aspiring women.
Congrats. Keep up the good work at Telenor.

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Syed ShoaibNov 04, 2016 06:08pm

Highly educated and computer literate people like her with industry experience
should teach programming part time evening classes in universities and/or colleges.

She is a symbol of success and an inspiration for the youth of Pakistan.

Pakistan has to produce thousand folds more "Computer Science Engineers" and or
Programmers than Electrical and Mechanical Engineers combined.

For the surprise of many, Computer Science field is much much easier than the Electrical
Engineering.

An Electrical Engineer can get his/her Masters Degree in Computer Science, but not the
other way around.

For a student, learning a first programming language may be a tedious task, but once he/she learnt the
first programming language, the other languages will become a piece of cake because all the languages
more or less have the similar structure but different Syntax.

Producing merely Ten Thousand so called "Quality Programmer" per year will certainly Not cut it.

Pakistan can do much better than that

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Agha AtaNov 04, 2016 08:47pm

Women are more dedicated to whatever they do. When all women are free it would be like an enormous giant coming to life. They concentrate better, while men spread themselves too thin and wander distant places and unrelated- irrelevant topics while working. Women are more focused.

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Azhar awanNov 05, 2016 12:48am

Pakitani women are tuff, strong, flexible, and take house full control when kids get old. Sana is an exemplary girl and Dawn need to work hard to find every jewel of our nation.

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Naveed ashrafNov 05, 2016 01:36pm

Yes, indeed, Pakistan's future will be very much secure if men dominating society gives space to women. How can we forget the great role our ladies played since the independence of our nation...well done Sana, great get going!!